Week 1 Reflection
One of the questions I found interesting dealt with pairing words with pictures for written materials. I have learned from many different speakers at conferences that this is a good idea and most had data to show students' increase in reading ability after exposure to print paired with pictures. The answer in the book talked about there being a time and place for these materials. It appears that the picture support should not be provided in the Working With Words or time given to actually learning to decode and read words. This makes sense because the emphasis wouldn't be on these skills if the picture support were provided. Picture support could be available to assist with independent reading of content material when the goal is knowledge and not decoding. The question about the occupational therapist working with students during the writing block was interesting. I think it is important to not work on the physical aspects of handwriting when the goal is to create written materials or generate thoughts. Students may decrease their thoughts to accommodate for their difficulty putting those thoughts on paper. I liked the question and answer related to how the special education could support the basic education teacher. The answer seems to be that the special ed student struggling with reading may benefit from the Guided Reading and Working with Words blocks in the basic education class because they are teacher directed. The same student may need additional assistance in applying what they are learning and could get that additional teaching or time from the special education teacher.
Week 2 Reflection
The authors already knew that Cunningham's Four Blocks Framework was based in research and that it was comprehensive in covering all areas related to literacy. Over the years professionals have vacillated between whole language and phonics as if you had to choose one type of instruction over the other. Cunningham's Four Blocks covered a variety of literacy skills and instruction instead of excluding some and/or focusing on 1 area of literacy. The authors chose to adapt this framework for students with disabilities. As stated in the book they looked at how to include students with physical disabilities, difficulty with verbal communication, students with sensory impairments, attention and cognitive difficulties. This would allow teachers working with those type of students to have information on how to adapt Cunningham's Four Blocks Framework. They also included information about technology that would help alleviate some of the student's difficulties that were a result of the disability and interfered with the instruction and production of work.
Week 3 Ten AT strategies
1. Think Aloud on page 23
This strategy works well. The teacher thinks aloud and writes her thoughts, giving a model to the students for brainstorming. Caroline Musselwhite talks about the importance of using this strategy with students that use alternative communication systems. When doing the "Think Aloud" the instructor should incorporate the student's communication system to assist the nonverbal student in finding the words they need for creating the sentence or thoughts needed for a word web or brainstorming. Example: "I want to talk about my dress for the dance so I would find the clothes page, oh there is dress. Now I'll go to my places page and find dance".
2. Sticky Notes with letters on them for Making Words activity, page 20. Put the sticky notes on an eye gaze panel or desk. The student can eye gaze or touch the letters needed to form a word.
3. Phonetic Word prediction software for writing assignments, page 25. The software is set so the student can listen to the word choices since he has difficulty with reading as well as spelling.
4. Switch accessible scanning of individual letters for writing activity on page 24 and 25. The student needed to indicate the first letter of each word. The description made it sound like it was two switch auditory scan.
5. Student uses a Step By Step or Sequencer communication device with preprogrammed messages related to editing their writing, page 24. The messages are the directions that the adult would give but the special ed student will give the directions instead.
6. Making computerized versions of the book used for guided reading on page 15. The pictures were scanned, the text was read aloud and a switch or mouse click could turn the page (PowerPoint book or My Own Bookshelf).
7. Pictures and words added to the tickets that are needed to participate in a center page 29. Choosing a preferred activity/center is easier because of the picture and word support.
8. Providing visuals to be used to summarize or "write about" the school day on page 28. There would be symbols for activities/topics at school. The student composes/summarizes before going home. At home, the student could have a set of symbols based on activities at home. They compose a list or summary of what they did last night and brings that to school.
9. Conferencing using eye gaze and appropriate questions that provide information others students would say during conferencing (page 28). Instead of asking open ended questions and such as "What was the book about?" the teacher would ask yes/no or multiple choice questions (example: Was the book about the family moving? wait for yes/no answer Was it about getting a new puppy? wait for yes/no answer OR put 4 multiple choice answers on an eye gaze panel and ask "What was the book about?")
10. Use of electronic books for Self-selected reading that are commercially available, page 27.
Week 4 Four Blocks in a Special Ed Class
One of the benefits for doing the Four Blocks in a special education class is that the staff don't appear to move as quickly as a basic education classroom does. The students and staff are able to spend more time with a skill related to the Four Blocks instead of having to quickly do an activity and move on even if the special education student didn't have time to participate or work on skills they need in the context of the story. This may be because there is more staff in the special education class to assist and/or it is easier for the SLP, OT, and PT to come into the special education classroom and provide services that fit with the classroom activities.
The challenge is the sharing of and the amount of adaptations that need to be provided for the students to participate. This is time consuming and requires planning to see what is available at different times through out the day (i.e. computer/word processing, positioning equipment). I think it is easier to create and provide the adaptations in a special education class than it would be for those same students in basic education classes.
Week 5 Self Selected Reading
The mini-lessons are important because it gives the staff the opportunity to work with the student on their individual needs related to self-selected reading.
Selecting mini-lesson- Bring in a few book an a given topic that are on the level the student can read or listen to and comprehend. Peak the student's interest by reading a short segment, tell them a little about the book or ask an intriguing question related to the book. This will help the student determine if they are interested in that book. As adults, we do these same things. People tell me a little bit about a book they have read, or pose an intriguing question about a book they think I would like. When I'm at the book store, I usually open the book and read a paragraph to see if it seems interesting to me.
Reading mini-lesson- Teach the student how to adapt text for their reading needs. We have taught students to scan a page and copy it and paste it into WriteOut:Loud and how to use the features of the program. We have also set up the classroom computers (Mac) for text to speech in System Preferences so they can highlight any digital text (internet, word processing, etc) and have it read to them. I also like the one about teaching students that it is ok to quit reading a book that isn't interesting. Many adults I know keep reading a book they aren't enjoying instead of finding something else to read, when reading for pleasure.
Sharing mini-lesson- Teach the student that has difficulty speaking how to use a talking word processor or communication device instead of their speech to share information about a book.
Week 6 Children Read and Conference with Teacher This was a great learning experience. I found quite a few websites I need to explore.
1. www.wiu.edu/thecenter/articles/adaptlit.html Nice article because I have many students that need alternative ways to hold a book and to turn pages.
2. www.riverdeep.net/language_arts/edmark_lang_arts/MakeAStory/MakeAStory.html I was surprised when I went to this website because Lenore and I used to own software that was identical to this. Now the students will be able to use it from the website. I have been looking for a way to get my young students creating stories but they need switch access. I'll try to find a way to make this switch accessible or see if they still sell the software since it was switch accessible. Kim Taylor and I went to a training about switch accessible software for students to create their own story but it was Windows only so I'll have to research or create something.
3. http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/topic93.htm This website seems to have a lot of good options to explore for adapted reading and creating stories. Students will be able to see the print and hear the spoken word at the same time. This will help with reading fluency and word recognition. Some students will be able to attend to the book and gain comprehension that may have been difficult if they were struggling to read.
4.www.bookshare.org I love Bookshare. I have been registering my students and training teachers how to download the books. This eliminates the difficulty that many of my students have with holding reading materials. It also allows them to obtain books that they may want to read for pleasure or reading logs/assignments. The book said that it is a fee based service but currently Bookshare is free to students that are in school.
5. www.softtouch.com - My Own Bookshelf. This is easy authoring software. It allows anyone to create books that are related to a specific topic. You can also use My Own Bookshelf to create books that have a variety of access methods. I like the idea of the student having their own bookshelf where they can use a switch or intellikeys to "get books off the shelf" which compensates for physical disabilities.Kim and I have created many books with this software and given them to teachers for student use. I like the fact that the software has a way to put the book on other computers that don't have My Own Bookshelf software so that the student can take the book home on a flash drive to have access on a home computer via the MOB player.
6. www.donjohnston.com We love the books Start to Finish books that are adaptations of published book with lower vocab/reading level. The Start To Finish books also have alternative access built in. I recently have been working with Read:OuLoud that was mentioned in the book. There is a Bookshare Version of Read:OutLoud that is available free when you sign up for Bookshare. It allows the books to be read aloud and provides the student a way to outline and/or highlight important information.
7.http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/ and then click on reading zone looked like it would provide a variety of books that are read aloud. I will have to spend more time on this website.
8. www.starfall.com This is a good website for beginning readers. It has a variety of things that help teacher phonics and including books that can be read by the student with auditory support only when needed.
9. www.ablenetinc.com This website was about the Bookworm. I haven't had anybody that liked using the Bookworm but it is a tool to remember.
10. www.accessiblebookcollection.org This website has books but charges a fee for it's use. I would continue to use bookshare.org since it is currently free for students that qualify.
Week 7 Conference Variations
Conferencing can help students find other books they may enjoy since the teacher will be learning what makes a student like a particular book. Some examples are the topic, the setting, short stories versus a novel, a personal connection. Once the teacher learns this information through conferencing, they will be able to share other options during subsequent conferences that will broaden the student's selection of books.
Teachers can teach students about adapted materials during the conferencing. This would be a good time share several adaptation options with the student and let them experiment to determine if the adaptation is helpful.
The conferencing session allows teachers to assess several areas related to read. They can check the student's comprehension, background knowledge needed for the material and vocabulary knowledge to name a few.
The conferences don't always have to be with the teacher and don't have to be individual. Some ideas given in the book were to allow students to work in a small group to share what they are reading. I like the "think aloud" idea where someone is looking through books but thinking out loud as to why they don't want this book or may want another one. There are many adaptations for students to participate in the conferences such as communication systems with information needed for things like sharing information about their book, telling about an author, a communication board with other books they read that were similar. Some students may need a computer to read/highlight an interesting part of a book or to go to a website that gives background information needed to understand the setting of a book.
Week 8 Guided Reading/Purpose/Before Reading
1. Building and accessing prior knowledge - In order to understand what is taking place in a book, you must have prior knowledge about the setting or situation that will take place. Many times I won't read a book that takes place in another country because I don't know about that country and it's customs. This can make it difficult to understand some of the situations that may take place. Prior knowledge will allow the reader to comprehend and attend to the story. Many students with disabilities have missed out on typical experiences that non-disabled readers have experienced. If you give the students background knowledge or provide them with the experience, it will allow them to understand the reading material. An example could be to provide the students with access to a video that shows people participating in a certain experience such as snow and even adjust the air conditioner to experience cold if reading a book that takes place in the winter.
2. Developing vocabulary essential for comprehension - It is important to go over words that are important to the story. You need to make sure the student knows what the word means and/or can associate it with another word. Many students with disabilities and not provided with a rich vocabulary and when they see or hear words that they don't know the meaning of, it will impact their ability to comprehend the story. Students can do activities that allow matching pictures/picture symbols to new vocabulary, create a dictionary of new vocab (it may need to be adapted with pictures). Activities could include finding a synonym for the new vocab or using the new words throughout their day. For students using aug com and sign language, finding a synonym is important because this type of communication lends itself to have a smaller word bank to choose from.
3. Making predictions - In both reading and movies/tv, people usually think ahead either wondering what will happen next or trying to predict what will happen. This keeps the person involved in the story and requires comprehension of what is happening. While doing a read aloud, the teacher could have students tell what they think will happen next or what they would have done in a specific situation. There are quite a few series of books where you choose your own ending. In these books the author put a note such as: if Karen looks in the bag on the park bench, turn to page 12. If Karen calls the police to report the bag, turn to page 15. These books help students predict and wonder what might happen next.
4. Graphic Organizers - We all think of using graphic organizers to help a person compose. I have started needing them to help me keep the plot and characters straight when reading. (I'm not sure if it because I read more than one book at a time and read so many books or if it because I'm getting older!) The graphic organizer could have a section for characters and how they are interrelated, information about the plot, or background information you need to understand the book. There are many software programs and websites that provide a variety of graphic organizers. The student should have access to a variety to determine which one works best for a particular story.
Week 9
Choral Reading - All students read the same text aloud at the same time. Students that are nonverbal or significantly speech impaired should read silently. Karen Erickson talks a lot about nonverbal students using the voice in their head when learning to read. She used this terminology in this passage. Students that don't read as well as others have certain pages or sentences marked for them to participate. Some students may find this embarrassing. Echo Reading - A trained adult reads a line and the student reads the line afterward. This allows the student to model good reading. If considering using technology to provide Echo reading practice, she warns about using a talking word processor because it doesn't provide a good model. It is suggested that the technology should have the ability to have the line recorded. You could use powerpoint, a tape recorder or a language master. Shared Reading - It sounds like this method requires the same book to be read several times. As the student becomes more familiar with the book, they are given more opportunity to read aloud. If done with a group, the adult will need to find a way to provide visual access to all students in the group. This could be done with "big books", chart paper that has the pages on the book, an overhead that is shown or typing the passages/book into a word processor or powerpoint and showing it on the screen/wall. Partner Reading - This involves 1 person reading with the student. The partner may read much of the passages but needs to know the words that the student with the disability should read. This sounds similar to one of the variations of the choral reading where the struggling reader has certain words they are required to read. They also described what seemed similar to Echo reading in phrases or single words.
It seemed like these strategies would call less attention to the struggling readers problems when done in Partner Reading instead of with a larger group. Partner reading for "ask questions" days was nice because it teaches students to formulate questions and think of information they may need, therefore needing to ask questions in every day life.
After Reading Strategies Predictions - I like this strategy because it gives the student a reason to continue reading. It also keeps them engaged in what is happening during the story. Predicting is a life skill also. The book said do not judge a prediction that someone makes, write it down. As the students read they should discuss the predictions that were made related to what happened in the story. K-W-L Charts - This is a good way to determine the group's prior knowledge and make predictions. K is where you list what you already Know. W is what you Want to know and L is what you Learned. When you do a K-W-L it helps the teacher know what gaps they may need to fill in related to background knowledge and what they have learned. Graphic Organizers - Many students need visual representation or notes to help them remember or understand the content. It is important to provide that information in a representation level that the student understands. Many programs allow the graphic organizer to be use with picture support which may be necessary for students that cannot read the words to be use on the graphic organizer. Kidspiration allows for picture support. If the teacher is providing a blank graphic organizer, they could provide squares of words with picture support to be glued into the graphic organizer for students that require that accommodation. I see many teachers using this strategy but not using other strategies. It seems like the graphic organizer is the strategy du jour. Writing Connected to Reading - This is a good strategy because many of our struggling readers also are struggling writers. Writing connected to the reading gives more opportunity to work with the words and the topic in the reading. This strategy also helps the student that has difficulty communicating their thoughts. These students may be able to learn to communicate better through this strategy. This allows the student to know something about a topic, work with words related to that topic and work on expressing their ideas. Examples of writing related to the reading would be to have the students write what they think will happen next, write what the main ideas and activities that have taken place far (same as taking notes or creating a "cheat sheet"), retell the story in the correct order. The writing can be adapted with word processing, PixWriter, Clicker 5, pictures that show what has happened - to be arranged in the correct order, or Intellitools Classroom Suite teacher made activities or Test Me Score Me.
Week 10 - Writing - Sam Sennott does an excellent inservice on this topic titled A Writer, A Pencil, A Reason, and a Teacher
Emergent Writing - An emergent writer is just beginning to learn to write. There are ways to provide errorless writing activities and activities that allow more freedom for the student. Intellitools Classroom Suite, PixWriter and Clicker 5 all allow the teacher to set up errorless writing templates. They all allow for alternate input methods also. After a student understands and produces errorless writing, the activities can be set up to allow the student to have the ability to put 2-3 phrases and words together to create their own sentence. This is the same skill needed for students that cannot verbally communicate effectively to create novel messages. If the student has difficulty communicating, you may need to get information from those that know the child's likes, dislikes, and vocabulary/topics that the student may be trying to communicate. Students that have spelling difficulties can use technology such as Co:Writer, Write:OutLoud, talking spell checkers to assist in producing written work that is spelled correctly or sounds grammatically correct.
The "Write" Stuff - This provided information about the types of assistive technology or classroom tools that a student may need to participate in a writing activity. These "alternative pencils" may include: keyguards for keyboards, alternative keyboards, word processing, software that allows for word banks for writing on a given topic, on screen keyboards, word prediction software, topic dictionaries, alternative access methods for these items, magnetic words on a cookie sheet, etc.
Simple Adaptations - This section talked about students may be reluctant writers because actual writing may be difficult. This could be due to fine motor issues, visual perceptual issues, motor planning, to name a few. They discussed easy adaptations such as pencil grips, adapted paper, writing instruments that have a variety of size and diameter and output (gel vs. pen vs lead) and slant boards. We give handwriting inservices to basic education and ESE teachers that provide this information and some of the items so they can provide these tools to reluctant writers. Websites such as Onion Mountain and Pocket Full of Therapy have a variety of things available.
Writing/Revising/Editing/Publishing - This section had good points. 1) Don't try to put your words and ideas into the student's writing. It is hard to leave what a student wrote without wanting to "fix" it. The student can revise and edit but only with the skills they know or are learning. 2) Editing/Revising is when the student can add additional thoughts. Don't try to tell them what to write or what to add in the initial writing. 3) Don't worry about grammar, word order, spelling, and penmanship during the initial writing. These things can be addressed during revising/editing (with or without tools) or after lessons that teach or reteach these skills.
Writing for Real Reasons - Students need to see real reasons for writing. Many times we use extrinsic rewards such as AR points as the reason to read or write. Using a planner/calendar, writing a list for shopping, have other read your writing for the enjoyment or shared experience are important reasons to write. Caroline Musselwhite has a project where a school had older students with significant reading/writing difficulties create big books for PreK and Kindergarten students. This allowed the older students to work with words and topics that were on their instructional level and gave them the opportunity to write for a purpose. She and Karen talk a lot about creating age appropriate books for secondary students that are emergent readers. Struggling readers/writers could create these books. We have suggested that teachers with struggling readers/writers create powerpoint books for students that need adapted books.
Post your assignments here:
Week 1 ReflectionOne of the questions I found interesting dealt with pairing words with pictures for written materials. I have learned from many different speakers at conferences that this is a good idea and most had data to show students' increase in reading ability after exposure to print paired with pictures. The answer in the book talked about there being a time and place for these materials. It appears that the picture support should not be provided in the Working With Words or time given to actually learning to decode and read words. This makes sense because the emphasis wouldn't be on these skills if the picture support were provided. Picture support could be available to assist with independent reading of content material when the goal is knowledge and not decoding. The question about the occupational therapist working with students during the writing block was interesting. I think it is important to not work on the physical aspects of handwriting when the goal is to create written materials or generate thoughts. Students may decrease their thoughts to accommodate for their difficulty putting those thoughts on paper. I liked the question and answer related to how the special education could support the basic education teacher. The answer seems to be that the special ed student struggling with reading may benefit from the Guided Reading and Working with Words blocks in the basic education class because they are teacher directed. The same student may need additional assistance in applying what they are learning and could get that additional teaching or time from the special education teacher.
Week 2 Reflection
The authors already knew that Cunningham's Four Blocks Framework was based in research and that it was comprehensive in covering all areas related to literacy. Over the years professionals have vacillated between whole language and phonics as if you had to choose one type of instruction over the other. Cunningham's Four Blocks covered a variety of literacy skills and instruction instead of excluding some and/or focusing on 1 area of literacy. The authors chose to adapt this framework for students with disabilities. As stated in the book they looked at how to include students with physical disabilities, difficulty with verbal communication, students with sensory impairments, attention and cognitive difficulties. This would allow teachers working with those type of students to have information on how to adapt Cunningham's Four Blocks Framework. They also included information about technology that would help alleviate some of the student's difficulties that were a result of the disability and interfered with the instruction and production of work.
Week 3 Ten AT strategies
1. Think Aloud on page 23
This strategy works well. The teacher thinks aloud and writes her thoughts, giving a model to the students for brainstorming. Caroline Musselwhite talks about the importance of using this strategy with students that use alternative communication systems. When doing the "Think Aloud" the instructor should incorporate the student's communication system to assist the nonverbal student in finding the words they need for creating the sentence or thoughts needed for a word web or brainstorming. Example: "I want to talk about my dress for the dance so I would find the clothes page, oh there is dress. Now I'll go to my places page and find dance".
2. Sticky Notes with letters on them for Making Words activity, page 20. Put the sticky notes on an eye gaze panel or desk. The student can eye gaze or touch the letters needed to form a word.
3. Phonetic Word prediction software for writing assignments, page 25. The software is set so the student can listen to the word choices since he has difficulty with reading as well as spelling.
4. Switch accessible scanning of individual letters for writing activity on page 24 and 25. The student needed to indicate the first letter of each word. The description made it sound like it was two switch auditory scan.
5. Student uses a Step By Step or Sequencer communication device with preprogrammed messages related to editing their writing, page 24. The messages are the directions that the adult would give but the special ed student will give the directions instead.
6. Making computerized versions of the book used for guided reading on page 15. The pictures were scanned, the text was read aloud and a switch or mouse click could turn the page (PowerPoint book or My Own Bookshelf).
7. Pictures and words added to the tickets that are needed to participate in a center page 29. Choosing a preferred activity/center is easier because of the picture and word support.
8. Providing visuals to be used to summarize or "write about" the school day on page 28. There would be symbols for activities/topics at school. The student composes/summarizes before going home. At home, the student could have a set of symbols based on activities at home. They compose a list or summary of what they did last night and brings that to school.
9. Conferencing using eye gaze and appropriate questions that provide information others students would say during conferencing (page 28). Instead of asking open ended questions and such as "What was the book about?" the teacher would ask yes/no or multiple choice questions (example: Was the book about the family moving? wait for yes/no answer Was it about getting a new puppy? wait for yes/no answer OR put 4 multiple choice answers on an eye gaze panel and ask "What was the book about?")
10. Use of electronic books for Self-selected reading that are commercially available, page 27.
Week 4 Four Blocks in a Special Ed Class
One of the benefits for doing the Four Blocks in a special education class is that the staff don't appear to move as quickly as a basic education classroom does. The students and staff are able to spend more time with a skill related to the Four Blocks instead of having to quickly do an activity and move on even if the special education student didn't have time to participate or work on skills they need in the context of the story. This may be because there is more staff in the special education class to assist and/or it is easier for the SLP, OT, and PT to come into the special education classroom and provide services that fit with the classroom activities.
The challenge is the sharing of and the amount of adaptations that need to be provided for the students to participate. This is time consuming and requires planning to see what is available at different times through out the day (i.e. computer/word processing, positioning equipment). I think it is easier to create and provide the adaptations in a special education class than it would be for those same students in basic education classes.
Week 5 Self Selected Reading
The mini-lessons are important because it gives the staff the opportunity to work with the student on their individual needs related to self-selected reading.
Selecting mini-lesson- Bring in a few book an a given topic that are on the level the student can read or listen to and comprehend. Peak the student's interest by reading a short segment, tell them a little about the book or ask an intriguing question related to the book. This will help the student determine if they are interested in that book. As adults, we do these same things. People tell me a little bit about a book they have read, or pose an intriguing question about a book they think I would like. When I'm at the book store, I usually open the book and read a paragraph to see if it seems interesting to me.
Reading mini-lesson- Teach the student how to adapt text for their reading needs. We have taught students to scan a page and copy it and paste it into WriteOut:Loud and how to use the features of the program. We have also set up the classroom computers (Mac) for text to speech in System Preferences so they can highlight any digital text (internet, word processing, etc) and have it read to them. I also like the one about teaching students that it is ok to quit reading a book that isn't interesting. Many adults I know keep reading a book they aren't enjoying instead of finding something else to read, when reading for pleasure.
Sharing mini-lesson- Teach the student that has difficulty speaking how to use a talking word processor or communication device instead of their speech to share information about a book.
Week 6 Children Read and Conference with Teacher
This was a great learning experience. I found quite a few websites I need to explore.
1. www.wiu.edu/thecenter/articles/adaptlit.html Nice article because I have many students that need alternative ways to hold a book and to turn pages.
2. www.riverdeep.net/language_arts/edmark_lang_arts/MakeAStory/MakeAStory.html I was surprised when I went to this website because Lenore and I used to own software that was identical to this. Now the students will be able to use it from the website. I have been looking for a way to get my young students creating stories but they need switch access. I'll try to find a way to make this switch accessible or see if they still sell the software since it was switch accessible. Kim Taylor and I went to a training about switch accessible software for students to create their own story but it was Windows only so I'll have to research or create something.
3. http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/topic93.htm This website seems to have a lot of good options to explore for adapted reading and creating stories. Students will be able to see the print and hear the spoken word at the same time. This will help with reading fluency and word recognition. Some students will be able to attend to the book and gain comprehension that may have been difficult if they were struggling to read.
4.www.bookshare.org I love Bookshare. I have been registering my students and training teachers how to download the books. This eliminates the difficulty that many of my students have with holding reading materials. It also allows them to obtain books that they may want to read for pleasure or reading logs/assignments. The book said that it is a fee based service but currently Bookshare is free to students that are in school.
5. www.softtouch.com - My Own Bookshelf. This is easy authoring software. It allows anyone to create books that are related to a specific topic. You can also use My Own Bookshelf to create books that have a variety of access methods. I like the idea of the student having their own bookshelf where they can use a switch or intellikeys to "get books off the shelf" which compensates for physical disabilities.Kim and I have created many books with this software and given them to teachers for student use. I like the fact that the software has a way to put the book on other computers that don't have My Own Bookshelf software so that the student can take the book home on a flash drive to have access on a home computer via the MOB player.
6. www.donjohnston.com We love the books Start to Finish books that are adaptations of published book with lower vocab/reading level. The Start To Finish books also have alternative access built in. I recently have been working with Read:OuLoud that was mentioned in the book. There is a Bookshare Version of Read:OutLoud that is available free when you sign up for Bookshare. It allows the books to be read aloud and provides the student a way to outline and/or highlight important information.
7.http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/ and then click on reading zone looked like it would provide a variety of books that are read aloud. I will have to spend more time on this website.
8. www.starfall.com This is a good website for beginning readers. It has a variety of things that help teacher phonics and including books that can be read by the student with auditory support only when needed.
9. www.ablenetinc.com This website was about the Bookworm. I haven't had anybody that liked using the Bookworm but it is a tool to remember.
10. www.accessiblebookcollection.org This website has books but charges a fee for it's use. I would continue to use bookshare.org since it is currently free for students that qualify.
Week 7 Conference Variations
Conferencing can help students find other books they may enjoy since the teacher will be learning what makes a student like a particular book. Some examples are the topic, the setting, short stories versus a novel, a personal connection. Once the teacher learns this information through conferencing, they will be able to share other options during subsequent conferences that will broaden the student's selection of books.
Teachers can teach students about adapted materials during the conferencing. This would be a good time share several adaptation options with the student and let them experiment to determine if the adaptation is helpful.
The conferencing session allows teachers to assess several areas related to read. They can check the student's comprehension, background knowledge needed for the material and vocabulary knowledge to name a few.
The conferences don't always have to be with the teacher and don't have to be individual. Some ideas given in the book were to allow students to work in a small group to share what they are reading. I like the "think aloud" idea where someone is looking through books but thinking out loud as to why they don't want this book or may want another one. There are many adaptations for students to participate in the conferences such as communication systems with information needed for things like sharing information about their book, telling about an author, a communication board with other books they read that were similar. Some students may need a computer to read/highlight an interesting part of a book or to go to a website that gives background information needed to understand the setting of a book.
Week 8 Guided Reading/Purpose/Before Reading
1. Building and accessing prior knowledge - In order to understand what is taking place in a book, you must have prior knowledge about the setting or situation that will take place. Many times I won't read a book that takes place in another country because I don't know about that country and it's customs. This can make it difficult to understand some of the situations that may take place. Prior knowledge will allow the reader to comprehend and attend to the story. Many students with disabilities have missed out on typical experiences that non-disabled readers have experienced. If you give the students background knowledge or provide them with the experience, it will allow them to understand the reading material. An example could be to provide the students with access to a video that shows people participating in a certain experience such as snow and even adjust the air conditioner to experience cold if reading a book that takes place in the winter.
2. Developing vocabulary essential for comprehension - It is important to go over words that are important to the story. You need to make sure the student knows what the word means and/or can associate it with another word. Many students with disabilities and not provided with a rich vocabulary and when they see or hear words that they don't know the meaning of, it will impact their ability to comprehend the story. Students can do activities that allow matching pictures/picture symbols to new vocabulary, create a dictionary of new vocab (it may need to be adapted with pictures). Activities could include finding a synonym for the new vocab or using the new words throughout their day. For students using aug com and sign language, finding a synonym is important because this type of communication lends itself to have a smaller word bank to choose from.
3. Making predictions - In both reading and movies/tv, people usually think ahead either wondering what will happen next or trying to predict what will happen. This keeps the person involved in the story and requires comprehension of what is happening. While doing a read aloud, the teacher could have students tell what they think will happen next or what they would have done in a specific situation. There are quite a few series of books where you choose your own ending. In these books the author put a note such as: if Karen looks in the bag on the park bench, turn to page 12. If Karen calls the police to report the bag, turn to page 15. These books help students predict and wonder what might happen next.
4. Graphic Organizers - We all think of using graphic organizers to help a person compose. I have started needing them to help me keep the plot and characters straight when reading. (I'm not sure if it because I read more than one book at a time and read so many books or if it because I'm getting older!) The graphic organizer could have a section for characters and how they are interrelated, information about the plot, or background information you need to understand the book. There are many software programs and websites that provide a variety of graphic organizers. The student should have access to a variety to determine which one works best for a particular story.
Week 9
Choral Reading - All students read the same text aloud at the same time. Students that are nonverbal or significantly speech impaired should read silently. Karen Erickson talks a lot about nonverbal students using the voice in their head when learning to read. She used this terminology in this passage. Students that don't read as well as others have certain pages or sentences marked for them to participate. Some students may find this embarrassing.
Echo Reading - A trained adult reads a line and the student reads the line afterward. This allows the student to model good reading. If considering using technology to provide Echo reading practice, she warns about using a talking word processor because it doesn't provide a good model. It is suggested that the technology should have the ability to have the line recorded. You could use powerpoint, a tape recorder or a language master.
Shared Reading - It sounds like this method requires the same book to be read several times. As the student becomes more familiar with the book, they are given more opportunity to read aloud. If done with a group, the adult will need to find a way to provide visual access to all students in the group. This could be done with "big books", chart paper that has the pages on the book, an overhead that is shown or typing the passages/book into a word processor or powerpoint and showing it on the screen/wall.
Partner Reading - This involves 1 person reading with the student. The partner may read much of the passages but needs to know the words that the student with the disability should read. This sounds similar to one of the variations of the choral reading where the struggling reader has certain words they are required to read. They also described what seemed similar to Echo reading in phrases or single words.
It seemed like these strategies would call less attention to the struggling readers problems when done in Partner Reading instead of with a larger group. Partner reading for "ask questions" days was nice because it teaches students to formulate questions and think of information they may need, therefore needing to ask questions in every day life.
After Reading Strategies
Predictions - I like this strategy because it gives the student a reason to continue reading. It also keeps them engaged in what is happening during the story. Predicting is a life skill also. The book said do not judge a prediction that someone makes, write it down. As the students read they should discuss the predictions that were made related to what happened in the story.
K-W-L Charts - This is a good way to determine the group's prior knowledge and make predictions. K is where you list what you already Know. W is what you Want to know and L is what you Learned. When you do a K-W-L it helps the teacher know what gaps they may need to fill in related to background knowledge and what they have learned.
Graphic Organizers - Many students need visual representation or notes to help them remember or understand the content. It is important to provide that information in a representation level that the student understands. Many programs allow the graphic organizer to be use with picture support which may be necessary for students that cannot read the words to be use on the graphic organizer. Kidspiration allows for picture support. If the teacher is providing a blank graphic organizer, they could provide squares of words with picture support to be glued into the graphic organizer for students that require that accommodation. I see many teachers using this strategy but not using other strategies. It seems like the graphic organizer is the strategy du jour.
Writing Connected to Reading - This is a good strategy because many of our struggling readers also are struggling writers. Writing connected to the reading gives more opportunity to work with the words and the topic in the reading. This strategy also helps the student that has difficulty communicating their thoughts. These students may be able to learn to communicate better through this strategy. This allows the student to know something about a topic, work with words related to that topic and work on expressing their ideas. Examples of writing related to the reading would be to have the students write what they think will happen next, write what the main ideas and activities that have taken place far (same as taking notes or creating a "cheat sheet"), retell the story in the correct order. The writing can be adapted with word processing, PixWriter, Clicker 5, pictures that show what has happened - to be arranged in the correct order, or Intellitools Classroom Suite teacher made activities or Test Me Score Me.
Week 10 - Writing - Sam Sennott does an excellent inservice on this topic titled A Writer, A Pencil, A Reason, and a Teacher
Emergent Writing - An emergent writer is just beginning to learn to write. There are ways to provide errorless writing activities and activities that allow more freedom for the student. Intellitools Classroom Suite, PixWriter and Clicker 5 all allow the teacher to set up errorless writing templates. They all allow for alternate input methods also. After a student understands and produces errorless writing, the activities can be set up to allow the student to have the ability to put 2-3 phrases and words together to create their own sentence. This is the same skill needed for students that cannot verbally communicate effectively to create novel messages. If the student has difficulty communicating, you may need to get information from those that know the child's likes, dislikes, and vocabulary/topics that the student may be trying to communicate. Students that have spelling difficulties can use technology such as Co:Writer, Write:OutLoud, talking spell checkers to assist in producing written work that is spelled correctly or sounds grammatically correct.
The "Write" Stuff - This provided information about the types of assistive technology or classroom tools that a student may need to participate in a writing activity. These "alternative pencils" may include: keyguards for keyboards, alternative keyboards, word processing, software that allows for word banks for writing on a given topic, on screen keyboards, word prediction software, topic dictionaries, alternative access methods for these items, magnetic words on a cookie sheet, etc.
Simple Adaptations - This section talked about students may be reluctant writers because actual writing may be difficult. This could be due to fine motor issues, visual perceptual issues, motor planning, to name a few. They discussed easy adaptations such as pencil grips, adapted paper, writing instruments that have a variety of size and diameter and output (gel vs. pen vs lead) and slant boards. We give handwriting inservices to basic education and ESE teachers that provide this information and some of the items so they can provide these tools to reluctant writers. Websites such as Onion Mountain and Pocket Full of Therapy have a variety of things available.
Writing/Revising/Editing/Publishing - This section had good points. 1) Don't try to put your words and ideas into the student's writing. It is hard to leave what a student wrote without wanting to "fix" it. The student can revise and edit but only with the skills they know or are learning. 2) Editing/Revising is when the student can add additional thoughts. Don't try to tell them what to write or what to add in the initial writing. 3) Don't worry about grammar, word order, spelling, and penmanship during the initial writing. These things can be addressed during revising/editing (with or without tools) or after lessons that teach or reteach these skills.
Writing for Real Reasons - Students need to see real reasons for writing. Many times we use extrinsic rewards such as AR points as the reason to read or write. Using a planner/calendar, writing a list for shopping, have other read your writing for the enjoyment or shared experience are important reasons to write. Caroline Musselwhite has a project where a school had older students with significant reading/writing difficulties create big books for PreK and Kindergarten students. This allowed the older students to work with words and topics that were on their instructional level and gave them the opportunity to write for a purpose. She and Karen talk a lot about creating age appropriate books for secondary students that are emergent readers. Struggling readers/writers could create these books. We have suggested that teachers with struggling readers/writers create powerpoint books for students that need adapted books.